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Bird- Lore 



the secret, for the passage was about two feet below the surface and 

 extended back quite five feet fro.n the opening. It ended in a rounded 

 chamber a foot in diameter. 



A tragedy it had been. Four h'ttle drowned Kingfishers and one pure 

 white egg, not far from the size of a pigeon's egg, la}' there. 



The Wise Man and the Ignoramus were both sorrowful. The pity of 

 it! When the wild torrents had fallen that night the water had seeped 

 through the sandy soil above the little home (if only the foolish birds had 

 asked the Wise Man about its location!) and at last had come so fast and 

 mercilessly that the poor mother had been driven out by the flood and her 

 babies drowned by it and then entombed by the caving in of the roof of 

 their house. 



But afterwards, who can tell what of love and remembrance was in 

 those efforts to dig to the ruined home, and what of sorrow in its abandon- 

 ment when its tragedy was discovered? 



A Rd'AL FAMILY" 

 Photographed by Maunseli S. Crosby, Rhinebeck, N. Y. 



